Monday, August 18, 2014

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 8-18-14

Head to either blog to find reviews as well as dozens of links to other blogs filled with reviews!

Books I Read this Week:

The Worm by Elise Gravel

Tundra Books, 2014

Nonfiction (with a talking worm narrator) :)

32 pages

Recommended for grades up to 4th

Fun compact book full of unique facts about the common earthworm.

I love the information, I love the humor, I love the illustrations, and I even love the way the book feels (come on, you know that's important!).

If you're looking for easy to navigate nonfiction, this fits the bill.

Mogie: The Heart of the House by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal

Atheneum Books, 2014

Realistic Fiction

32 pages

Recommended for grades up to 4th

A story based on a real dog living at the Ronald McDonald House. Unfortunately, my library copy didn't allow me to read the author's note in the back of the book, as the back jacket-flap is taped down over half of it. I fear this will be a problem for all library copies. I certainly missed out on an important part of this story. Which might explain why I have some small issues with falling in love with this story:

First, I felt confused about how Mogie came to be at the Ronald McDonald house, and how he came to stay. This confusion comes because the book does make it clear that dogs are not allowed in the Ronald McDonald house. The second thing that I thought was lacking was a solid explanation of what the Ronald McDonald house is really about. This might be because the author is making a decision to let the adults sharing this book with young readers gauge how much should be explained, and how much needn't be.

A sweet story though, and I do wish I could have read that author's note!

I've seen The Worm featured on many blogs over the past few weeks and you know what that means: the more I see it, the more I want it! Looks like a terrific nonfiction series. Thanks for the heads-up about library binding issues with Mogie. I've had this issue very occasionally with other books too. So many PBs are read in libraries--I wish publishers would think a bit more about design issues with having parts of the jacket taped down on library copies!

I know! I feel that there was a major design flaw when laying out that book. And the poor author, who probably had no idea her important and lengthy author's note would be covered up. On another note, Carrie got me interested in The Worm, and then I discovered there are others in the series-very fun!

Hi there Nicole - I can commiserate with you about jacketflaps taped to library books - we have that problem as well here in Singapore. I am definitely intrigued by The Thickety, thanks for sharing it. :)